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Another BOB DYLAN crossword, overlapping a recent Listener, although I am not sure why the focus was on Dylan in November. It’s not his birthday nor any other particular anniversary that I can detect.

We were told simply that ‘six undefined answers all played a version of a seventh in an eighth’. My initial instincts were to think of the theatre or films, but as explained below I didn’t home in on the right film immediately.

The theme was the August 2007 film I’M NOT THERE. The title is taken from a previously unreleased 1967 recording. In the film, six actors or actresses play six different characters representing various aspects of Dylan’s life. All of the thespians are spelt out in the Down answers, in clue order – RICHARD GERE, CHRISTIAN BALE, HEATH LEDGER, BEN WHISHAW, MARCUS CARL FRANKLIN and CATE BLANCHETT.

I haven’t done Guardian crosswords for some time, so I am not in tune with the cluing style of Enigmatist. As a result, it took me a while to understand some of the clues, but I think I have got a fairly accurate explanation of all but one. I am not sure how the leading B and the final W in BEN WHISHAW fit into the clue. I have guessed at B referring to paper sizes, but the W completely eludes me. Maybe it’s to do with seeing something in black and white or down on paper? I am also a bit unsure of my explanations of ICTAL, and BOB DYLAN.

Films are not one of my strong points so I didn’t immediately home in on Dylan, even although I had deduced I’M NOT THERE as an answer early on. I had BALE and LEDGER as well at that point, so I spent some time looking at BATMAN casts before I hit on the Dylan theme. From then on the Down answers were fairly simple.

I enjoyed the challenge of Enigmatist’s clues as the misdirection was excellent in many cases. The definitions demonstrated an entertaining use of lateral thinking.

Answers to standard clues involving both definition and wordplay are explained in BLUE below. The wordplay in thematic elements, which were clued without definition, are displayed in different colours.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Guardian Genius.
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